The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more particularly to contact management and automated dialing on a mobile device.
Mobile devices allow users to store multiple numbers under a single contact name. For example, under a contact name “Home”, a user can save multiple phone numbers for each family member living at home. When making a phone call to a phone number under the contact name “Home”, the user has to scroll up and down through a contacts list, find the contact name “Home”, and then scroll up or down to select a desired phone number stored under the contact name. In the case where the user calling the desired phone number receives no answer, the user must again select a second phone number to call stored under the contact name in order to reach someone in their family.
In another example, a user has various meetings which are repetitive on a daily basis at different times with different people, such as a manager, a team leader, and a partner team. In this case, the user would be dialing to the same meeting number allotted by his company, but the pass code to join these various meetings will be different. Therefore, the user has to dial the meeting number and wait for the automated voice that plays an audio message, such as “Please enter your pass code followed by # key now”. After listening to the message, the user must enter the pass code for a particular meeting and announce a name.
In yet another example, a person wishes to invite fifty guests to his birthday celebration. The user creates a list of contacts to invite on a sheet of paper, selects each contact from a contact list on a mobile device, and dials each contact one at a time, updating the list on the sheet of paper accordingly.